How a teacher used permaculture to overcome adversity

PERMACULTURE - in the past few years, everyone would have heard about it, but how many of us actually know what it is, or what it means?

"Permaculture really means permanent culture - so how can we live permanently as a society?" Pinbarren permaculture expert and teacher Dan Deighton explains.

"Often it comes up as gardening but it can cover everything.

"You can use permaculture in medicine, or renewable energies, harvesting energy that's going to last permanently."

A bit of a Google confirms this: permaculture is usually defined as the act of working with nature, such as plants and animals, in harmony to produce a sustainable future.

Its principles encourage learning how to utilise ecosystems to have minimal impact on natural environments - if humans disappear, nature will take over the permacultured area with little need to adapt.

We're standing in a beautiful property in Pinbarren that falls gently in to a valley. The afternoon sun has dipped behind the hills, casting a long cooling shadow.

Dan is going through the beginning of a permaculture garden design class, teaching the group how to identify different elements that can affect how a garden grows.